This invention relates to a device for assisting a male to obtain and maintain an erection of his penis to enable performing sexual intercourse.
Medical literature reveals that males at all ages sometimes inexplicably lose the capability of obtaining an erection for a variety of reasons and even without apparent reasons. In some cases there are psychological causes and in other cases physiological causes underlying the inability to obtain or maintain an erection. Regardless of the cause of impotency, however, in most cases the male maintains the desire and urge to indulge in intercourse.
Development of a penile erection is, of course, dependent on a complex interaction of psychological and physiological factors which are not clearly understood but the anatomical phenomena associated with successful erection are well known. The penis is composed of erectile tissue arranged in three longitudinal columns bonded by fibrous tissue. Erectile tissue has a spongelike structure containing cavernous spaces for being occupied by blood. These spaces are fed by arterioles and capillaries and are drained by small flow restricting veins. Muscle fibers traverse the walls of the spaces and surround their discharge veins. When the penis is induced to erect, arterioles feeding the spaces dilate, the muscle fibers around the spaces relax, and the muscle controlling the venous outlets contract to restrict blood discharge from the caverns. The cavernous spaces in the erectile tissue expand as blood is pumped through them at high pressure and the penis becomes hard and erect. Thus, the natural erection process is basically a matter of capturing and holding pressurized blood in the cavernous tissues of the penis.
Surgically implantable devices have been developed for enabling a male subject to simulate a natural penile erection. Typically, one or more longitudinally extending expansible sacs are implanted in the penis and connected through a fluid system having check valves to a fluid filled bulb that can be massaged externally for pumping the fluid into the sac to thereby simulate the natural process. Some implants cause permanent erections. Implantation of some of the artificial devices result in permanent destruction of the nerve and blood vessel passages such that a natural erection can never again be obtained. All the implant techniques require the subject to spend some time in a hospital. The hospital and surgical expense is known to be substantial.
In the prior art there is one device which can be applied externally of the penis for maintaining, but not attaining, an erection. The device is called a pubis ring. It is intended for use primarily by those males who, when excited, can develop an erection but cannot maintain it for a long enough time to satisfy themselves and their mate during intercourse. The pubis ring is designed to keep the blood in the penis once it has been pressurized by natural reaction to sexual stimuli. It cannot help in cases where there is a minimal erection or none at all. The pubis ring comprises a loop whose opposite ends enter the opposite ends of a flexible sleeve. The two ends emerge together out of a radial hole in the sleeve. The loop is slipped back to the root of the penis at a time when the subject perceives as a result of prior experience that his erection is likely to be at its maximum even though he may remember that there were times in the past when it could become larger and more rigid. When maximum is perceived, the cords of the loop are snubbed to trap the pressurized blood in the penis. The erection can then be maintained for its intended purpose. Disadvantages of the pubic ring are that it requires some dexterity to secure and focusing attention on the securing problem can be distracting enough to cause the tentative erection to disappear prior to usage.